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Wednesday 30 September 2015

Review: Romancing the Dark in the City of Light

Review:

Romancing the Dark in the City of Light: A Novel - Ann Jacobus

I received a copy from Netgalley. 

 

This was a bit of total cover lust for me. Hot pink cover, set in Paris was pretty much a must have. Though I was worried it was going to be another Anna and the French Kiss. Which also has a gorgeous pink cover and is set in Paris. However, I was quite pleased to find that this book is nothing like Anna. The style of this book was a little weird. The plot was kind of bizarre but in a weird way I would up really liking it. 

 

It tells the story of Summer, a 17 year old shipped off to stay with her rich mother in Paris. Summer has been kicked out of numerous high schools the last few years, and has an obvious drinking problem which is not glossed over or buried in the romance side of the novel. Summer is set to gain a huge inheritance if she graduates high school and so many years of college before she's 22. She's failing miserably and the prospect of gaining this whopping inheritance is slipping from her grasp. 

 

Summer is one of the most unusual YA heroines I have come across in a long time. She's sort of more an anti-heroine. She's delightfully snarky and speaks her mind with little regard to consequences over what comes out. But she's also belligerent, crude, careless. She's spoiled and its clear she has the potential to be very intelligent, but she just doesn't seem to care about anything. She's also an alcoholic who keeps a flask with her almost all the time, even at school, and can't seem to get through the day without a drink.  Summer is struggling with the recent death of her father, but it appears she's been drinking well before that happened.

 

In spite of all her shortcomings, I did find myself actually rather liking Summer as the novel progressed. Once you get to grips with the way the story is told, its hard not to become captivated by her journey. 

 

At her new school in Paris she makes friends with a delightful Muslim boy, Munir, or Mooney to his friends. He's been crippled in an accident, but doesn't let this hamper him in any way. He's bright, he's friendly, he's witty, and totally charming. He get's Summer's attention right away. Their friendship and more develops in ups and downs throughout the novel. Some of the writing when the romance comes in is quite sweeping and beautifully poetic. Summer at least, knows she has problems and thinks even though she really likes Mooney, she'll never be good enough for him. 

 

At the same time, Summer's attention is also captivated by a mysterious male figure, Kurt. Kurt is the epitome of European tall dark and handsome. He appears as if out of nowhere and always seems to pop up when terrible things happen. When suicides happen. Summer finds herself present for these unfortunate evens, and Kurt seems to be there as well. She never has any ways of contacting him, he always turns up seemingly at random. He brings out the worst in her. He may have been a smooth talker, but he was an arrogant dick. 

 

The view point of the novel is strange, it's third person present tense, which seemed odd for a novel with such involved subject matters as mental health, alcoholism and suicide. It took some getting used to, and it times, even though it was weird, the writing was really lyrical and beautiful. Dark, but captivating. 

 

The novel tells of Summer's dealing with her drinking, a shock revelation about her father's death, whether she will ever live up to the terms of her inheritance, her feelings for Mooney and her feelings for Kurt.  Kurt is pretty much a huge question mark. Was he real? Was he something abnormal? Its almost impossible to tell. I didn't get him, at all. I'm Team Mooney.  I thought Mooney was a wonderful character. His strength and understanding of Summer and her eccentricities was pretty amazing. Though it wasn't all smooth sailing with Mooney either. There was plenty of drama there too. 

 

I was also pleased to see that Summer shows incredible character growth by the end of the novel. She has to wake up and actually deal with things in a non self destructive way. I did think the last little bit at the end was a tad bit eye rolling and unrealistic. But it did make me smile. 

 

All in all, a slightly weird, but very deep novel dealing very well with some dark and uncomfortable themes. 

 

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for approving my request to view the title. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1262359/review-romancing-the-dark-in-the-city-of-light

Tuesday 29 September 2015

More Mini Reviews

More Happy Than Not - Adam Silvera Darkness Before Dawn - J.A. London The Night We Said Yes - Lauren Gibaldi The Fill-In Boyfriend - Kasie West Lois Lane: Fallout - Gwenda Bond Legacy of Kings - Eleanor Herman Unspoken - Sarah Rees Brennan Rook - Sharon Cameron Not a Drop to Drink - Mindy McGinnis

More Happy Than Not – Adam Silvera – 5 Stars

I’m not sure what I was expecting with this one. It was something I bought on a whim. I think I was expecting something light and snarky. What I got was one amazing emotional gutwrencher of a novel. It was gritty, stark and realistic. The MC is struggling with a sucky living situation, his sexuality and his father’s recent suicide. He has a girlfriend who he likes a lot, but then a new guy comes into the picture making him question himself when he starts to realise just how much he likes this dude. The writing packs a punch, its very blunt yet provocative in the emotions the story brings out in its characters. There’s also a storyline involving some sort of medical procedure that makes you forget all the horrible things in your life. (There may be some side effects). It’s an emotional rollercoaster that made me cry at the end. I loved it.

 

Darkness Before Dawn  - JA London – 4 stars

This was a something I snagged a few years ago when it was a freebie on a Kindle daily deal. Something I stared at random a few weeks ago when looking for something to capture my attention. A bit of coverlust, I went into this one not really knowing anything about it. And found myself surprisingly impressed. Vampire dystopia! Great world building, even managing to be down right creepy in parts. Likeable heroine – always a plus. There was a love triangle that was totally obvious to where it was going from the second it started. Only thing I didn’t get with this one was the main character was supposed to be special somehow. I didn’t see much elaborating on that. She’s supposed to be a delegate between the humans and the ruling vampire party. I saw nothing particular special about her. Maybe something elaborated in the next book? Unique vampire lore. Fantastic twist at the end. Definitely a series I’d like to read more of.

 

The Night We Said Yes – Lauren Gibaldi – 4 stars

Oh this was an emotional roller coaster. Tells the then and now story of Ella and Matt, and their best friends Jake and Meg.  Told from how Ella and Matt met, from their breakup to Matt’s reappearance a year later and how Ella handles it was well as a few other dramas in between. Brilliant character driven novel with deep emotional connection. Manages to go from fun to heartwrenching and back again with some great character growth. I loved this one.

 

The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West. 3.1/2 stars

A reasonably entertaining read, I read pretty much in one morning after the first 10%. Don’t really have a lot to say about this one. I didn’t really connect much to the characters. MC Gia is popular and perfect with a set of really cool friends and one frenemy who she thinks is trying to push her out of her group. She’s dumped just before prom and talks some random guy into being her date. The plot is completely predictable as they wind up in various situations pretending to be a couple. Gia was shallow and obsessed with what people thought about her which got to be annoying. Particularly when she told her so called cool friends lots of white lies. Then got upset when they got mad at her. She did show some character growth towards the end. It was light, fluffy and kinda cute.

 

Fall Out (Lois Lane) Gwenda Bond – 4 Stars

The Smallville fangirl in me had a total blast with this one. While some of the technical aspects, the scifi stuff, the total immersion video game things went a little over my head and it was a bit hard to grasp some of the concepts, but it was still fun. I think that was because Lois was so well written. Snarky, witty, smart, dedicated and loyal. What else was immensely fun about this novel was while there were lots of familiar names and places that any Smallville or Superman fan would recognise, it managed to take the familiar and make it new, updated and original in its own fantastic way. Introducing new characters and villains with a great build up and conclusion. More please.

 

Legacy of Kings (Blood of Gods & Royals #1) Eleanor Herman – 5 Stars

I loved this so much I got it in hardback as well as a kindle copy. I’m not really that fussed on how historically accurate it was, it was a brilliant piece of epic fantasy. Multi layered characters, brilliant world building, a unique take on magic and its own densely developed take on some familiar and unfamiliar mythology. Lots of characters, lots of different view points. The romance angles were the weakest part of it, but the rest of the story telling was so completely captivating it’s one of those cases where annoying romances are easily over looked. I loved it.

 

Not a Drop To Drink – Mindy McGuinnis – 3 stars

Survival stories are really not my thing. I ummed and aahed over this one for a while. I like dystopia, but not that much of a survival story fan. It was a review from Christina Reads YA blog that convinced me I needed to read this one. Took me a while to get to it, but I’m glad I finally did. One of the most brutal world buildings in a dystopia that I’ve come across in a while. Bleak and certainly uncomfortable in parts. The hardships over come by the main character showed tremendous strength, both physical and mental. But even throughout the hardships, I did like seeing how she could soften her heart without being weak as she learned to survive for herself but rely on and help others as well.  Little to no romance and a surprising twist at the end. I’m not sure I’m that interested in a second book in this series, but I would definitely read something else by this author.

 

Unspoken (The Lyburn Legacy #1) Sarah Rees Brennan – 5 Stars

This one was recommended to me when I was looking for gothic romance a few years ago. Another one I’d heard of for a while but never got around to reading. I loved it. Loved it from start to finish. Loved the magic, loved the characters, the world building, the setting, the writing. The brilliant bantery snark just made it all the more entertaining.

 

Rook – Sharon Cameron – ½ star. DNF at 25%.

Didn’t work for me. Dystopia. Very slow and boring. World building made little to no sense. No connection to any of the characters. Also didn’t like how they randomly spoke French in parts with no translation. It wasn’t mysterious or clever, it was irritating. Not for me.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1261757/more-mini-reviews

Thursday 24 September 2015

Review: The Lost Girl

Review:

The Lost Girl: A Fear Street Novel - R.L. Stine

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

actual rating 1.5 stars.

 

I think it was 90s nostalgia that made me request this title. RL Stine is a very familiar name to me, even though I never read any of the original Fear Street books or even any of the old Goosebumps titles. I did often like RL Stine's Point Horror titles which I read over and over as a teen. So I thought I'd give this one a try.

 

I don't quite know what to say on it. It had its moments. It wasn't scary in the slightest, at least not to me. It felt more like a Lifetime teen thriller movie, or at a stretch it reminded me very much of the old Nickelodeon show 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?'. It had some rather unexpectedly gory moments. But the downsides were the plot felt a bit too much at times like 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' and the end was utterly ridiculous.

 

Started out with a fairly intriguing premises, in the 1950s, with a seemingly likeable heroine, Beth, who had some unusual abilities. And an unwanted interest from local rich boy Aaron. She told him point blank she was not interested, but he was not the type to take no for an answer. Literally. Beth's abilities help her fight him off. But he screams "witch" and freaks. The dialogue is a little silly.

 

Then there's some rivalry between Aaron's father, who owns a big ranch, and Beth's father, who wants to start a new ranch. Competition is not appreciated by the reigning ranch and there are deadly consequences. This was the first surprisingly disturbing event. It was twisted and rather shockingly brutal and gory. Beth witnessed the event and had the makings of a strong, likeable heroine who thinks on her feet and wants to do something about the injustice. But she's caught and it all goes pear shaped.

 

Fast forward to modern day and in the same high school seventy years later, teens Michael and Pepper are hanging out. They're boyfriend/girlfriend, Michael's your average high school boy, Pepper is a feisty redhead with every redhead cliche. Something they poke fun at a lot in the book. This reader's eyes rolled a lot, but at least they seem to know its an overused cliche that redheads are temperamental and passionate and fiery etc. Michael wants to be a writer, he and Pepper run the school blog. He has a group of friends who seem like reasonably nice teens. Even if they do act dumb and say dumb things.

 

Then out of nowhere beautiful new girl Lizzy comes in. Michael is captivated by her right away noticing how pretty she is. Even though he sees her shoplift food from a grocery store and she knows his name before he's even introduced himself, he doesn't seem to see anything beyond how pretty she is. And suddenly, Lizzy is everywhere. Though weirdly enough has no contact info. No Facebook page, no phone, no email. No one knows where she lives or where her previous school was. Yet she waltzes around and inserts herself into Michael's group of friends.

 

No one seems to think this is weird. A terrible accident involving drinking and Snowmobiles is where things take a dark turn. Also, plotwise feels an awful lot like 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'. Something terrible happens but the kids cover it up. Then creepy phone calls start and Michael's friends start having horrible accidents. Its supposed to be scary and confusing but the dialogue in the phone calls is so ridiculous it just makes me snigger, along the lines of "you killed me and now every one of you is going to suffer terribly..." It just makes me think along the lines of "the call is coming from inside the house!"stupidity.

 

At least they finally have the sense to get the police involved, but as usual in this type of teen thriller, experienced law enforcement officers are useless and its up to Michael to figure it all out. But of course, that's sort of why as a reader, you tend to like this sort of thing, even if it is unrealistic and daft. Michael is zoning out by this point, and everyone else is finally clueing into the fact that there's something not right about Lizzy. Yet when Michael thinks on this, the sensible line of thinking he has goes right out the window when Lizzy mysteriously reappears.

 

It did have some fairly good moments while Michael figures out the truth about Lizzy and with Pepper's help finds the connection to the 1950s story at the start of the book. (It is very obvious, but whatever). The book was okay until this point. It wasn't the creepiest thing i've ever read, but certainly not one of the worst. It was fast paced and to be honest, once I started it was fairly impossible to put it down.

 

The end was so stupid though. Completely spoiled it for me. In fact, it knocked what would have been a three star book down to a 1 star rating. It was just absurd. Though the last page did give me a grin, so I bumped my rating up 1/2 a star.

 

Other than the end, a reasonably entertaining read.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1259562/review-the-lost-girl

Monday 21 September 2015

Review: Sing For Me

Sing For Me (Angels and Arias) (Volume 1) - Gracie Madison

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

I think this is a case of it seemed like a good idea at the time. Also, cover lust. I found this title whilst browsing on Netgalley for New Adult that wasn't a contemporary. The cover got my attention immediately, it is flat out stunning. The blurb sounded intriguing.

 

But the story is just not working for me. I made it 12% but the dialogue is making me want to bash my head against the wall. The setting is quite descriptive, but I can't stand the characters. I quite liked Natalie, but that's about it. I can't see myself finishing this one, I just don't like it. So on the DNF pile it goes.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1257879/review-sing-for-me

Wednesday 16 September 2015

Review: Tonight The Streets Are Ours

Review:

Tonight the Streets Are Ours - Leila Sales

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I really don't know what to make of this one. On the one hand, I simply loved the main character. And the writing is done in such a brilliant way it so easy to identify with Arden and understand where she's coming from. However, the whole randomly deciding to track down some random guy who's blog you love. I just can't get my head around that at all.

Never, ever, under any circumstances is it okay to just randomly show up at someone's place of work or home because you found their blog! Even if you loved the blog, and like the person who writes it...it's still creepy! You like the blog? Email the blogger, tweet them. Start a dialogue. Don't just show up because you decide they need you!

Rant over, for the most part, this was a pretty damn good book.

Arden is a fairly average teenager with a nice boyfriend, she's a good student, has nice friends, though her best friend is something of a wild child and it's Arden who often picks up the messes. Starting off with a suspension for her BFF's drugs found stashed in Arden's locker. Arden takes the blame because she knows bad things will happen to her friend who's already been in a lot of trouble. Arden's level of loyalty is sweet, but ridiculous at the same time.

She's the girl who's always there, always reliable. The sensible one, the smart one who listens to everyone else's needs but when she needs people, they rarely seem to listen to her. Which leads her to the discovery of Peter and his blog, Tonight The Streets Are Ours. Peter seems like nice guy, works in a bookshop, in love with a beautiful unattainable girl. Jock for a best friend, family drama.

Arden is hooked. At its easy to see why she gets so fascinated by Peter's blog. Peter's words are fun, he's intelligent. She identifies with his trouble. Arden has her own boyfriend, drama club star, Chris. Though they've been together for a while, he's nice enough, but seems obsessed with his theater stuff. So it's not surprising when Arden is captivated by Peter.

When Chris blows off their anniversary, Arden is moping with BFF Lindsay, and at the same time reading Peter's blog, she decides Peter is just like her...the giver who never gets the love he deserves. So she and Lindsay go to find him. Just like that.

I don't get it. I really don't. For the most part, the writing i s captivating and the story is pretty gripping, even becoming attached to Peter's blog. But the going to find him was where I started...not loving the book less really. I just don't. Get. Why. Anyone. Would. Do. That!

Of course when Arden arrives in New York where Peter lives, nothing is what it seems. She has a crazy night of fun, but not without its drama. Ugly truths comes out and Arden finally explodes and lets out what she's been holding back. Drama with Lindsay, trouble at home...it all comes pouring out. Peter is not the sweet quirky guy she thought he was.

Though things are wrapped up, its not exactly in a romantic way. Its again, sweet, but oddly, believable and easy to understand why it happened that way. Truths come out and things are finally out in the open to be dealt with. Arden's character growth is pretty amazing.

So while I may not have got some of the plot, I did really love Arden. While I didn't like all the characters, I think they worked extremely well for the way the story was told.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1254995/review-tonight-the-streets-are-ours

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Mini Reviews

This Shattered World - Amie Kaufman,  Meagan Spooner The Accident Season - Moïra Fowley-Doyle The Last Time We Say Goodbye - Cynthia Hand The Girl at Midnight - Melissa Grey All That Burns - Ryan Graudin The Dead House - Dawn Kurtagich The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall - Katie Alender

Mini Reviews

 

This Shattered World (Starbound #2) Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner – 1 Star

Didn’t like this one at all. Very disappointing compared to how much I liked These Broken Stars. The second Starbound instalment I found very very dull. This book focused on one of the planets, Avon, and some sort of long standing war between the soldiers and a group of rebels who didn’t like the way things were run. The Army Captain is supposed to be the best in her group, even at 17, yet in the first chapter she manages to get herself captured by a rebel who intends to lead her back to base for an execution to be made an example of. Or something along those lines. Of course it all goes hideously wrong. And the two become obsessed with each other. It seemed to be about I love him/her but we can’t be together because we’re on opposite sides. I felt nothing for these characters. The romance was flat and uninteresting and there was so much going on in the background, one tragic act after another, or something equally horrific. It just got boring. So, didn’t like this second instalment. That being said, I am still looking forward to the next book. While this one didn’t work for me, I still like the series and world building enough I want more.

 

The Accident Season – Moira Fowley-Doyle – 5 Stars

I loved this book so much I read it in a few hours, I simply could not put it down. I loved the setting, the ambivalence of the plot. The type of magical realism and not so likeable characters reminded me very much of Nova Ren Suma’s writing. The story focuses on a family who have inexplicable accidents at a certain time of the year. There is never really any sort of explanation for this. There is an underline theme explored towards the end of the novel involving a very dark and uncomfortable family secret that has been hidden for years. Along with a party in a supposedly haunted house and all sorts of weird things going on that you’re not sure are real or not. It was confusing, but it was one of those good confusing books where despite the fact I didn’t have a clue what was going on most of the time, I was so invested in the story and each character, I loved it anyway.

 

The Last Time We Say Goodbye – Cynthia Hand – 5 Stars.

This one had me sobbing ugly tears by the end. This novel tells the story of a girl dealing with her brother’s suicide and broken family.  Took a while to get into, but by the end it was heart breaking. There was a big sense of something almost like guilt from the main character, Lex, about not noticing something was up with her brother, or being able to stop it. As well as dealing with her parents’ divorce and a mother who can now barely cope.  What I loved about Lex was how smart she was. She was a math whiz with a dream to get into MIT. But dealing with the unexpected suicide sort of threw her off her game. She’s struggling with coping herself. She has to see a shrink she’s not all that impressed with. She’s willing to sacrifice a great potential future to stay home and help her mother. Her friends, who she pretty much all ditched in her grief were pretty amazing that they were still willing to understand and be there, even if it took time. Sad, but uplifting in a way as well.

 

All That Burns (All That Glows #2) – Ryan Graudin – 5 Stars

Oh so swoony! I love this duology. An incredibly unique mix of fae mythology and Arthurian legend brilliantly woven together.  Picking up shortly where All That Glows left off, Richard is now King, Emrys has given up her magic to be with him. She has a little left over but it’s not much. Humans and Fae now have a sort of uneasy treaty, new laws are in place to help them get along more. It all seems to be going okay. But of course, it’s not long before everything goes pear shaped and things are horribly wrong. There’s a big new baddie on the scene and Emrys is struggling to cope with how to fight as a human with a touch of fae magic. To make things worse, Richard goes missing. And everyone, other than Richard’s sister Princess Annabelle, blame her. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant book. Mesmerising plot, fantastic characters. Swoony romance (though not without its heartache and struggles). Yes, the writing is a tad bit purple prosey a lot of the time, but the story is so good its easy to overlook.

 

The Girl at Midnight – Melissa Grey – 5 Stars

A brilliant mix of modern day and fantasy world building. And a fantastic lead character. Echo pretty much owned this book right from the start. Snarky without being too annoying, she knew when to rely on help and when to tell people where to go. She was loyal to her friends and did what had to be done, even when it meant forming an alliance with a sworn enemy. It did take a while for the plot to get going and was kind of hard to get my head around the different races and the world building at first. Something to do with some two races of people, some based on birds, some based on dragons who had been at war forever, and a mythical firebird who would solve all their problems. I figured out the firebird twist immediately, but didn’t care because by then I was in love with the book. Very unique. Can’t wait for more.

 

The Dead House – Dawn Kurtagich – 5 Stars

Oh this book creeped me out. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like it. I had to stop at certain points because it creeped me out. (Though reading it during a dark rainy night and with a ‘The Walking Dead’ on in the background probably wasn’t the smartest idea!) I don’t scare easy. I have yet to find a YA horror novel that has truly made me uncomfortable and creeped me out. The Dead House did a spectacular job of that. This book actually gave me more than a few nightmares.

It’s told in a very unusual format. In the form of diary entries, police interviews, psychiatry reports, video transcriptions, emails and chats. It tells a very creepy story of two girls who share one body. Seemingly reasonable Carly gets the day, while at night the more volatile Kaitlyn comes out. They communicate by writing messages to each other. Two very different personalities, in one body. We learn “their” parents died under mysterious circumstances. Also that something big and terrible happened and the novel explores what leads up to that terrible big event and what happened afterwards.

Each personality - both the Carly and Kaitlyn forms actually communicate with each other through leaving post-its or messages lying around.  Before long things take a turn for the worst when a form of dark scary voodoo type magic becomes involved. It’s strange, uncomfortable, and told in such a way that even though the content is disturbing, it’s morbidly fascinating.  There’s a sort of conclusion, but the whole thing is very open ended. Usually, this irritates me to no end. In this case however, it’s so well done that it makes the creep factor even more freaky.

 

The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender – 4 Stars

Another YA horror/mystery that turned out to be better than expected. Certainly nowhere near as scary as The Dead House. There were parts of it that were absolute cheese. But it was very entertaining and I finished it in a few hours. This tells the story of Delia who inherits a house from her deceased grandmother, Cordelia. (They share the same name and Delia communicated with her through letters when she was growing up so grandma left her the house) Delia is now 17, and got into a bit of trouble trying to sneak off with her friends for a spring break vacation with no adults around. But she got caught. Her parents decide that they are going to move to the inherited house for the summer to clean it up ready for selling along with Delia’s nightmare of a younger sister Janie.

      The house turns out to be a closed down metal hospital which catered to ‘troubled’ young women for a few centuries but shut down. The real truth behind grandma Cordelia’s death is also revealed. A tragic incident leads the modern day Delia to the terrible truth about the asylum. And the novel tells the story of Delia coming to terms with the shock of the revelation and how to cope with it.

         It’s very entertaining as Delia gets to grips with the rules of the house and how she has to now interact with her friends and family. It’s also extremely cheesy as well in certain parts and certain bits of the dialogue are very silly. There are some typical teen horror movie moments with the heroine doing stupid things inducing a “what the hell are you doing??!” reaction. The plot has a few amusing twists and turns particularly towards the end of the novel. Cheesy and fun.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1254378/mini-reviews

Review: The Distance Between Lost and Found

Review:

The Distance Between Lost and Found - Kathryn  Holmes

This was a really interesting book. Usually ones with slightly religious themes are touch and go for me. I’m an atheist, so it’s either fascinating to see a different point of view or I get pissed off with preachy themes. Thankfully, I found the religious themes in this one quite interesting. This tells the story of Hallelujah (Hallie) a girl on a youth group retreat in the mountains who winds up getting lost with two friends.

 

When it starts Hallie is suffering from some serious bullying instigated by a boy named Luke, the golden boy, the preacher’s son who everyone loves and listens to and no one has a bad word about him. Truth be told – he’s a dick. He and Hallie sounds like they did something and she got the blame for it. He makes her life miserable as a result.

 

Its really depressing how quickly people grownups and kids judged Hallie unfairly when she had always been a likeable, trustworthy good girl. One word from Luke and everyone’s opinion turns. She keeps quite. A new girl Rachel, has come on the retreat and tries to befriend Hallie. Initially, Hallie is quite bitchy towards her. She doesn’t want to open up and be hurt again. Her former best friend, Jonah, who is also there, turned his back on her. Somehow, Hallie, Rachel and the other guy Jonah, get separated from their group on a trail and get very lost very quickly.

 

Things go from bad to worse as the three try to figure out how to survive and get home together. This is where the question of faith comes in as well. Its brought up as their situations change and manages to have several different views and be quite moving without getting preachy and annoying.

 

It’s a touching survival story with great character growth.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1254347/review-the-distance-between-lost-and-found

Review: Between the Notes

Review:

Between the Notes - Sharon Huss Roat

This took a while to get into. Main character Ivy has spent most of her life as a spoiled brat with cool friends and everything she could ever want. Until her father’s business fails and she and her family lose their house and they are forced to take a house in the bad part of town. Ivy is mortified. She can’t tell her friends, afraid they’ll hate her, and to make matters worse, the school bad boy (and suspected drug dealer) Lennie, is her next door neighbour. Lennie teases her, shows up at inconvenient (to Ivy) moments, but Lennie gets on great with her younger siblings, including her special needs baby brother. The kids love him. Ivy can’t get her head around it.

 

 She’s struggling to cope, and at first she’s irritating but as she adjusts she becomes more likeable. She tells her best friend Reesa the truth, but they don’t tell their other friends, Willow and Wynn, the richest girls in school and the biggest gossips who either make you or break you. These girls destroyed the reputation of another girl who used to be their friend who found herself in the same situation as Ivy. Forced to move to the bad side of town.

 

Ivy does show tremendous character growth by the end of the novel. Handsome new comer James comes along and sweeps Ivy off her feet. Downside, Reesa likes him too but he’s becoming friends with Ivy and she doesn’t tell Reesa anything. Ivy keeps lots of secrets and tells little white lies and half truths.

 

It’s also revealed Ivy has brilliant musical skills – but suffers from dreadful stage fright and can’t perform in front of anyone. Yet a few times, this secret comes out. There’s a plot about trying to convince Ivy to sign up for a signing job at the local country club or a talent show and open mike performances.

 

There is a love triangle – Ivy gets to know supposed bad boy Lennie better, at the same times developing feelings for hot new boy James who might have a huge secret of his own. Secrets rapidly unravel and Ivy is forced to deal with the outcomes. The romance is a little predictable. But it was sweet.

 

The novel turned out to be pretty amazing by the end.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1254344/review-between-the-notes

Review: The Glass Arrow

Review:

The Glass Arrow - Kristen Simmons

This dystopia just didn’t work for me. I’m not sure why I even started it when generally speaking novels with society where women are pretty much property and there for pets or breading purposes piss me off to no end. I think I was probably hoping that the girl who’s the heroine will knock the society down and put things right again. Which is what usually happens in dystopias.

 

But this one, focused on one girl, who’s family had managed to get away from the society and the women lived free hidden in the mountains. Aya is captured and dragged kicking and screaming all the way back to the major city to be put in an auction house with the other girls her age. Sole purpose is to be prettied up and sold off to the highest bidder.

 

One thing I did really like about Aya was her absolute determination to be free again. She fought tooth and nail against everything. All she was focused on was her escape. Escape, and nothing more. But the problem was the plot was just boring. And that’s all it seemed to be focused on. Aya bitching about her situation and wanting to be free. Some of it was rather unbelievable and kind of stupid as well. She gets herself stuck in solitary a lot. Which appears to be outside in fenced in area with a poisoned stream as well.

 

Yet she’s been sent there so often she manages to befriend a rogue wild wolf who can somehow sneak past the barriers. The place is guarded to the nines, but no one manages to notice this wolf. Or the really handsome boy who appears on the outside and gets Aya’s attention as well. The whole thing was eye rollingly irritating.

 

It took so long for anything to happen. And it was dull. Though at I suppose to be fair, the plot was at least compelling enough to finish it to find out if Aya ever did escape and find her family again. But bottom line, just didn’t like it. At all.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1254342/review-the-glass-arrow